Factory managers typically wish to quickly, efficiently, and safely transport raw and manufactured materials through various machinery to create products to be sold, and to eventually package those products in a convenient form for shipping to customers. For example, in a corrugated manufacturing factory, boxes are manufactured by first creating corrugated material in a machine called a corrugator. The corrugated materially is sequentially delivered to a series of machines that each performs one or more steps in the manufacture of corrugated boxes. These machines include, for example: gluing machines, creasing machines, and folding machines. The corrugated boxes in their various states of completion are typically delivered to and transported from each of these machines using a conveyer system which interconnects the machines.
After manufacture of the corrugated products, the factory manager is faced with the problem of packaging or strapping the manufactured products together in a convenient, unitary form for shipment to customers such as distributors or end users. For this, various types of unitizing equipment, including relatively large machines called unitizers, are frequently employed to aid in the unitization or packaging of the manufactured products for relatively easy shipping, storage, and other handling. Such unitizers apply one or more straps around a group or bail of products to be secured such that the secured products can be easily and safely transported.
More specifically, in certain circumstances, where the products to be secured are compressible (such as when the products are corrugated boxes), unitizers perform a variety of tasks. Certain unitizers compress such products to be secured and apply one or more straps or other securing devices around the compressed products. Certain unitizers compress and partially secure the products in one direction, rotate the partially secured products, and compress and secure the products in another direction. It should be appreciated that other unitizers perform other tasks depending on the products to be unitized.
As with other machines in the manufacturing line, the products are typically delivered to and transported out of conventional unitizers by conventional transport mechanisms such as conveyer systems, including conveyer belts or rollers. These transport mechanisms transport the products along the manufacturing line and eventually transport an unsecured group or bail of products into the unitizer for strapping. The transport mechanisms typically also transport the unitized or strapped products out of the unitizer for delivery to a shipping area.
Unitizers, which can be used in a variety of industries, present factory managers with a variety of problems.
Due to the size of and forces applied by unitizers to the products to be packaged, unitizers can present a safety risk to the people who operate them. For example, if a bail of corrugated boxes becomes skewed and needs to be re-adjusted or squared, an operator may seek to remedy the situation by approaching the unitizer. This action may constitute a safety violation, particularly if the unitizers platen is not latched. Therefore, factory or plant managers typically desire to prevent such potentially unsafe behavior in relation to unitizers.
It has also been found that, although unitizers can be characterized as post-production machines, they play a central role in the productivity of a manufacturing factory. That is, productivity bottlenecks in a unitizer can severely restrict overall factory productivity. Therefore, factory or plant managers typically desire to maximize the operation of unitizers and increase throughput.
Since unitizers are typically at or near the end of a factory's manufacturing assembly line, and do not usually perform a role in the actual manufacture of the products of made in the factory, unitizers have typically been employed as separate machines rather than employed as an integral part of the rest of the machinery in the factory. Since the unitizers are employed separately, the control and monitoring of the unitizers have been separate. In other words, the control and monitoring of unitizers have not been integrated with the control and monitoring of the machinery that makes the products. It is thus typically difficult for the factory or plant manager to ascertain the nature of malfunctions with or within a unitizer since the unitizer (as a practically separate machine from the rest of the machinery in the factory) does not have integrated monitoring systems for reporting its status. Thus, conventional unitizers often require intervention by factory management to both ascertain the nature of a malfunction and to determine how to remedy the malfunction of a unitizer.
One known solution for addressing these problems with unitizers in factories (e.g., safety violations occurring at or near the unitizer and problems with the unitizer itself) includes a camera trained on the unitizer that provides and records a live video stream of the operation of the unitizer. This system suffers from the substantial drawback that to be useful, at least one individual must continuously monitor the camera feed for potential functional and safety issues with the unitizer during the operation of the unitizer. Even if that individual happens to be watching the video stream when a safety infraction or functional issue with the unitizer occurs, the individual must first detect the safety infraction or functional issue, and then must take further measures to inform the appropriate person(s) in management of the problem. Additionally, this system is not integrated with other factory monitoring and control systems and thus does not solve all of the above problems such as the potential bottleneck issues created by unitizers.
The overall importance of unitizers in factory productivity has also not been adequately addressed by known systems configured to improve factory productivity. Available systems for manufacturing plants or factories that employ unitizing equipment, such as unitizers, typically focus on monitoring the machines involved in the actual creation or manufacture of the products rather than in the unitizing of manufactured products after they have been made. Known systems do not facilitate improvement of the throughput of unitizers (or other similar machinery), in part because they do not provide adequate monitoring and control of such machinery, despite the fact that most or all of the manufactured products output by a factory pass through the unitizer.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system to facilitate enhanced control of and safety monitoring and productivity improvement in unitizers (and other similar machines) in manufacturing factories. A need also exists for a system that monitors the unitizer and provides feedback about weaknesses associated with the unitizer, such as possible safety infractions and other possible machinery issues. A further need exists for a system that integrates data captured from various points in a factory, including unitizers (and other similar machinery) in the factory, and makes that integrated data available for easy consumption, reaction, and adjustment by factory managers and other factory personnel.